A veteran's solemn duty

PORTSMOUTH — At 10:30 a.m. on the dot Saturday morning, Martin Cameron pulled up in his truck at Plains Field. A 28-year-military U.S. Air Force veteran, he likes to do things on time.

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By Suzanne Laurent

seacoastonline.com

By Suzanne Laurent

Posted Nov. 10, 2012 at 4:56 PM
Updated Nov 10, 2012 at 4:59 PM

By Suzanne Laurent

Posted Nov. 10, 2012 at 4:56 PM
Updated Nov 10, 2012 at 4:59 PM

Veterans Day events

Sunday, Nov. 11Portsmouth: 9 a.m. for a short service at Walmart on Lafayette Road. Traditional ceremony is at 11 a.m. in Goodwin Park on Islington Street. All parties are encouraged to arrive ...

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Veterans Day events

Sunday, Nov. 11

Portsmouth: 9 a.m. for a short service at Walmart on Lafayette Road. Traditional ceremony is at 11 a.m. in Goodwin Park on Islington Street. All parties are encouraged to arrive by 10:45 a.m. There will be refreshments served after the ceremony at the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Deer Street for participants of the ceremony.

Exeter: American Legion Post 32 holds a Veterans Day ceremony at 10:30 a.m. at Gale Park on Front Street.

Hampton: American Legion Post 35 will host four ceremonies: 8 a.m.: at the Marine Memorial at Hampton Beach; 9 a.m.: at the North Hampton Public Library, 237 Atlantic Ave.; 10 a.m.: at American Legion Post 35 Hall, 69 High St. in Hampton; Noon: at Weare Common in Hampton Falls for a new monument dedication.

Details: Post 35 observances are taking special notice of New Hampshire veterans who served from April 30, 1975, to Sept. 11, 2001, and are honoring them with a new monument at the Hampton Falls service. The guest speaker is one of those veterans — Christopher Nevins, a retired lieutenant colonel with the N.H. Air National Guard who served as a pilot in the Air Force. Unveiling the monument will be Gulf War veterans Frank Fitzgerald and Mike Farinola of Hampton Falls. For information, call 926-4668.

Stratham: 11 a.m. ceremony at Stratham Hill Park featuring guest speaker retired Major Gen. Ken Clark of Stratham. Ceremony will include laying of a memorial wreath and a 21-gun salute. Refreshments will be served by the Stratham Volunteer Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary immediately following at the Stratham fire station.

South Berwick: Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5744 will hold a service at 2 p.m. in front of the South Berwick Town Hall on Main Street.

PORTSMOUTH — At 10:30 a.m. on the dot Saturday morning, Martin Cameron pulled up in his truck at Plains Field. A 28-year-military U.S. Air Force veteran, he likes to do things on time.

He came to replace the American flags at the monuments of the 26 service members honored at the corner of Route 33 and Islington Street, all of them Portsmouth residents who lost their lives during World War I.

The old flags were torn and tattered during Superstorm Sandy and the new flags were provided to Cameron by the city's Public Works Department.

Cameron invited the public to help him replace the 26 flags and the two he likes to put on the boulder with the green-tarnished copper plate listing the names of those who died so long ago.

But no one showed up.

“And, look, it's a beautiful day, too,” he said.

Cameron has been taking care of the monuments since they were moved by the city in October 2010.

“They kind of grew on me,” he said.

He points out a monument for Lt. Louis Fingleton, whose ship the USS Cyclops sank in April 1918 and whose body was never recovered.

“And here is a doctor,” Cameron said. “He was only 26.”

He shows the mossy monument inscribed with the name of Lt. Paul Dennett, a surgeon in the 2nd Battalion of the 75th Regiment, who died in France.

He also pointed out the monument for Army nurse Evelyn Petrie who died in 1918.

Cameron has made special holders from plastic tubing for the flags so the wooden poles won't rot during over time.

During his military career, Cameron was in the Korean Conflict in 1951. He was stationed at Pease Air Force Base in September 1971 where he stayed until he retired as a senior master sergeant in 1976.

“I was hoping they'd send me to Boise, Idaho, because the weather is beautiful there,” Cameron said. But the Woburn, Mass., native stayed on to live in Portsmouth after his retirement.

At age 84, he still volunteers at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard every Wednesday, making calls to newly-widowed spouses of veterans to help them sort through the mountain of paperwork they are suddenly faced with from the government.

Cameron planned to play the national anthem and Taps at 11 a.m. from a CD player in his truck, but since no one else showed up, he quietly placed the flags and drove off.